Let’s just say that the town council solar subcommittee, charged with reviewing a plan for the town to allow a private company to build a huge solar photovoltaic array on its capped landfill in Marstons Mills, did something yesterday.

The subcommittee – chair Greg Milne, council VP Jan Barton, and fellow councilors Ann Canedy, Jim Crocker, and John Norman – has been digging into the complicated arrangement by which the Cape & Vineyard Electric Cooperative, of which it’s a member, hopes to produce electricity more cheaply for a group of Cape towns that are offering use of their land for free. The benefits could be substantial, perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars in utility bill reductions for Barnstable, but the subcommittee has been squinting at the fine print to make sure the town gets the best deal.

On May 26, the councilors voted 3 to 2 to recommend that the full council ask the town manager to “further negotiate and execute’ agreements with CVEC. Norman, who voted in the majority with Barton and Milne, said he’s not convinced yet that he would vote to pursue the development and power purchase agreements when the full council acts – and Canedy and Crocker said their nays could change based on further negotiation with CVEC.

The councilors succeeded in ensuring that the town would receive all, not just 90 percent, of net metering revenue from the proposed installation, but remain concerned that CVEC, not Barnstable, has first right to purchase the installation at checkpoints throughout the 20-year agreement. “It’s our land,” Crocker reiterated in arguing that the town should be the first to “step in.”

Charles McLaughlin, the assistant town attorney who represents Barnstable on the CVEC board and serves as its president, said the town had made its case forcefully for first right of purchase but failed to sway the board.

The subcommittee took a subsequent vote this week to sponsor a measure for a council workshop and to produce a rationale that lays out its areas of satisfaction and concern regarding the power agreements. That, at the least, moves the project forward for debate by the full body and allows time for McLaughlin to continue negotiations with CVEC.